Railway-rail joint.



W. J. MOREHOUSE.

RAILWAY RAIL JOINT.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 2, 191a.

Patented Nov 18, 1913.

WWW

Gwyn Lu;

J. MO Q HQUSE, F ASHTABULA, OHIO.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Application filed July 2, 1913,

RAILWAY-RAIL. JGINT.

Serial-M0. 777,978.

a To allwhom may concern.

Be it known that I, WARREN J. MORE- I-ronsn, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residiag at Ashtabula, in the county of Ashta+ bula and State ofOhio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ra1lway-RailJoints, of which the following is a specification, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings.

This invention relates to railway rail joints, and it more particularlyrelates to an improved form of railway rail and fish plate.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved form of railwayrail in which the use of bolts. may be entirely dispensed with.

Another object of the invention is to pro vide a rail joint of thischaracter by means of which the rail ends are securely fastened togetherand held rigidly in alinement.

Another object of the invention is to provide rails and rail joints ofthis character which are comparatively inexpensive, strong, durable, andthoroughly efficient and effective.

Other objects and advantages may be recited hereinafter and in theclaim.

In the accompanying drawings, which supplement this specification,Figure 1 is a side elevation View of two adjacent rail ends constructedin accordance with my invention; and Fig. 2 is an end view of one of therails having my improved fish plates fitted thereto, the latter beingillustrated in section.

In these drawings, in which similar reference characters correspond withsimilar parts throughout the several views, the rail heads 5 aresomewhat deeper or thicker than those ordinarily constructed, for theprovision of depending flanges 6 and longitudinal grooves 7, saidgrooves being located between the web 8 and the respective flanges 6.

The base flanges 9 are each provided with an upstanding flange 10 whichextends longitudinally of the rail in the vertical plane of'therespective flanges 6, so as to provide grooves 11 which extendlongitudinally of the rail between the web 8- and the respective flanges10, said grooves 11 being directly under and in the vertical plane ofthe respective grooves 7.

r The upper and lower portions of the web 8 diverge outwardly on an evencurve, so as Patented Nov. 18., 1913.,

to form conc'aved bearings or seats 12in which one edge of the fishplates 13 is fitted; each fish plate 13 having its respective upperlower edge portions conveXed as at' 14, and adapted to be seated in theconcaved portions 12',- at the adjacent ends of the rails. The conveXedportions 14: and the outer edge portions 15 are provided withcorrugations on: teeth 16, which accomplish the several functionshereinafter recited.

It is well known that in railway rails which are manufactured by theusual processof rolling, the surfaces thereof are left 1n aoomparatlvely rough and uneven state.

7 That is, such rails are not formed with polished surfaces. or with.such perfectly even ,surfacesas if the rails were planed or polished.Therefore, it is desirable to form the fish plates with saidcorrugations, or with alternating teeth and notches, so that when saidfish plates are driven or forced into the notches 7 and 11, said teethremove the particles of scale and other unevennesses from the surfaces12, while the notches between the teeth receive such particles that havebeen removed from said surfaces 12. In other words, the fish plates cuttheir way into the seats between the depending and upstanding flanges.Likewise, such unevennesses that cannot be removed by the teeth 16 cutor force their way through said teeth; and so, it will be seen that theteeth or corrugations 16 compensate for shrinkage and other causes ofvariation in the dimensions, which would otherwise either prevententrance of the fish plates or allow them to enter too easily and fittoo loosely in their respective seats.

In applying the fish plates to the rails, the latter are first laid inplace, the fish plate is then driven into the grooves 7 and 11 thereofby means of a sledge or other suitable tool. curely together by means ofthe fish plates, while the fish plates, in turn, are held in their seatsby the flanges 6 and 10 of the rails. It is obvious that, duringexpansion and contraction of the rails, the fish plates have slightrelative movement within their seats, upon the surfaces which havethereby been rendered relatively smooth, while the relatively roughportions of the surfaces 12, over which the teeth 16 have not traveled,prevent the fish plates from moving away from the rail ends.

The rail ends are now held seteeth into frictional engagement with thesurfaces 12.

It will be seen that I have provided a railway rail and rail joint ofthis character which is fully capable of attaining the foregoing objectsin a thoroughly practical and effective manner. 7

While the accompanying drawings illustrate what I believe to be thepreferred embodiment of my invention, it is to be understood that theinvention is not limited thereto, but that various changes may be madein the construction, arrangement and proportions of the parts withoutdeparting from the scope of the invention, as defined in the appendedclaim.

I claim- V The combination in aerailway rail joint,

of two adjacent rail ends each having an upper flange depending from itshead and a lower flange extending up from the base flange of the rail,said upper and lower.

WARREN J. MOREHOUSE.

Witnesses E. T. BELDEN, WILLIAM GAPE.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington. I). 0."

